On Day #10 (of 50) of our European trip, my wife and I are travelling from Barcelona to Carcassonne (a must-see) and remain overnight (RON). Would like to get close to 2-days in La Cite and take the midPM train out. This gets into Nice late and we'd like to push on to CT. Would like to see Nice but enough to RON there if we go by train. Have looked at several Nice to Vernazza timetables (RailEurope, SNCF, and TrenItalia) but can't seem to avoid a 4-hr plus stopover in Ventimiglia (00:12-05:01). Do we just suck it up?
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
If you leave Carcassonne at 15:33 and connect in Marseille, you'll arrive in Nice at 22:37. If you "push on", you'll have that long layover in Ventimiglia and you'll arrive in Vernazza at 09:33. My suggestion is that you book a cheap hotel or hostel near the Nice train station. If you leave Nice at 05:23 and connect in Ventimiglia and Genova, you'll arrive in Vernazza at 11:03. If you leave Nice at the same time and connect only in Ventimiglia, you'll arrive in Vernazza at 12:04. In either scenario you'll arrive more rested and you won't have lost all that much time.
Posted by
Ottawa
1446 posts
I'm of the camp that was underwhelmed by Carcassone. Consider maybe an earlier train? Also consider overnighting at Hotel Lemon, in Menton. It is a 1 min. walk from the train station - cheap and clean!
http://www.hotel-lemon.com/
Posted by
OP
Honolulu, HI, USA
3 posts
Tim / Diane: Thanks for the feedback. With nearly 20 cities to visit on this trip, have just deleted Carcassonne from the itinerary. After digging deeper into all-things-Carcassonne, am seeing the light...it's not all that. The blogs on Nice hotels are what prompt me to bypass the city. No matter how I slice it, this corner of Europe is difficult to navigate by train in a day kinda like Texas by car. The fix: flying from Barcelona to Rome and modifying my itinerary to work the Boot south-north/. Mahalo.
Posted by
Ottawa
1446 posts
Good idea, Bern.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
As someone who likes Carcassonne, I think this (ditching it) is a good call. Maybe you'll come back to France some day and fit it in to an itinerary that makes sense. (It's not a bad stop between Provence and the Dordogne, for instance, two outstanding destinations).
Posted by
Atlanta, Ga, USA
2023 posts
We were also underwhelmed by Carcassonne. It appeared to be magnificent as we approached it from below. It is worth a visit only if you are not going out of your way to see it. Wish we had gone to Albi instead-we also were coming up from Barcelona ( which we really loved).